RI dismisses calls for world tribunal<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed on
\nMonday the likelihood of an international tribunal for Indonesian
\ngenerals in connection with last year's violence in East Timor.<\/p>\n
The Director of International Organizations at the ministry,
\nSudjadnan Parnohadiningrat, said setting up an international
\ntribunal was a lengthy process that must have the support of all
\nfive permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.<\/p>\n
The UN secretary-general had not even given a recommendation
\non the matter, and if and when he did, the matter would be taken
\nup by the Security Council, Sudjadnan said.<\/p>\n
Many countries would support Indonesia in opposing the
\nestablishment of a tribunal, he said.<\/p>\n
\"I am sure Russia and China, as permanent members of the
\nsecurity council, will have a different perspective on the
\nmatter,\" Sudjadnan said, referring to two permanent council
\nmembers with vetoing power.<\/p>\n
The United States had also eased pressure to set up an
\ninternational tribunal after Indonesia launched its own
\ninvestigation into the mayhem in East Timor, he said.<\/p>\n
The most important thing was that Indonesia must show to the
\nworld that there was no impunity for anyone who had committed
\nhuman rights abuses in this country, he added.<\/p>\n
President Abdurrahman Wahid, who was in Switzerland on Monday,
\nalso reiterated his determination to reject an international
\ntribunal. \"We are strongly against it. We prefer to the give
\nopportunity to the national process,\" he told reporters.<\/p>\n
The special UN inquiry team in its report to Annan on Monday
\nrecommended the world body set up a tribunal to prosecute those
\nresponsible for atrocities in East Timor.<\/p>\n
The report proposes the United Nations conduct a full
\ninvestigation to further probe the violence that broke out
\nshortly after the East Timorese voted for independence from
\nJakarta on Aug. 30, according to sources familiar with the
\ndocument.<\/p>\n
After the investigation, the United Nations should set up an
\ninternational tribunal, which would include a role for East Timor
\nas well as Indonesia, the team said.<\/p>\n
The five-member UN human rights inquiry team, which went to
\nEast Timor in November for nine days, said its preliminary
\ninvestigations left no doubt of the involvement of the Indonesian
\nMilitary in the violence, according to the report.<\/p>\n
The BBC said the commission concluded that Indonesian soldiers
\nwere directly involved in abuses in certain cases and that
\nJakarta's military was ultimately responsible for the terror and
\nintimidation.<\/p>\n
But the Security Council, as well as Annan, is expected to be
\nreluctant to set up a tribunal while Indonesia itself is
\ninvestigating the violence.<\/p>\n
China has been adamant about noninterference in the affairs of
\na sovereign nation. Under international practices, the United
\nNations will not set up a tribunal if the country involved is
\nwilling and able to prosecute its own citizens.<\/p>\n
The investigators recommended the tribunal be set up in East
\nTimor and in Indonesia rather than a third country. The Hague in
\nthe Netherlands serves as the seat for a UN tribunal for the
\nformer Yugoslavia, while trials on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda
\nare conducted in Arusha, Tanzania.<\/p>\n
Attached to the report is a letter from Indonesian foreign
\nminister Alwi Shihab, who is said to have rejected the probe as
\nunfair and one-sided.<\/p>\n
But the UN inquiry team questioned whether the Indonesian
\ngovernment would be able to prosecute those responsible, the
\nsources said.<\/p>\n
The UN team began its nine-day preliminary probe on Nov. 25.
\nIt was authorized by the Geneva-based Commission on Human Rights
\nand is headed by Sonia Picada, a Costa Rican human rights
\nattorney. Other members rights experts are: Judith Sefi Attah of
\nNigeria, A.M. Ahmadi of India, Mari Kapi of Papua New Guinea and
\nSabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger of Germany.<\/p>\n
U.S. assistant secretary of state Stanley Roth said Washington
\nwould consider an international tribunal for atrocities in East
\nTimor if Indonesia failed to produce a \"bona fide\" prosecution,
\nthe Associated Press reported.<\/p>\n
\"From the perspective of the United States, our concern is to
\nsee that justice is done, that there is accountability,\" he said
\nin Davos, Switzerland.<\/p>\n
The United States continued to want to first see what happened
\nin the Indonesian domestic process before making any
\ndetermination on whether there was any need for a followup
\ninternational process, he said.<\/p>\n
\"To the extent that the Indonesians do a bona fide job, that
\nthe individuals are not only investigated but prosecuted, and
\npossibly convicted, then there would seem to be little need for
\nan international effort,\" Roth added. (04\/prb)<\/p>",
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